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Here you will the details of our previous years business review.
Results for the year to 31 December 2016
Nasstar PLC ("Nasstar", the "Company" or the "Group"; stock code: NASA), a provider of hosted managed and cloud computing services, results for the year ended 31 December 2016.
Chairman's Statement
Operational Highlights
● Relaunched Nasstar brand, with new look and feel, better reflecting the Group's capabilities; subsidiary brand names dropped.
● Successful acquisition of Modrus in September 2016:
● Group technical capabilities broadened
● Further vertical market diversification delivered
● Group round the clock capabilities bolstered with 24x7 support service delivered from New Zealand
● Successful cross-selling already in evidence
● Integration plan underway with wider integration plan due in 2017
● The maturing of the Group's public cloud capabilities saw Microsoft award Nasstar a number of Gold competences relating to Office 365 ("O365") and Azure.
● Became Microsoft SCA accredited – Shared Computer Activation accreditation enables Nasstar to integrate O365 fully with hybrid platforms where both public and private cloud platforms are integrated in the delivery of the managed service to the customer. Nasstar are one of only four other Microsoft partners that hold such accreditation.
● Continued to pioneer the public and private cloud hybrid solution, with a high proportion of the recurring revenue growth including hybrid solutions.
● Conclusion to year-long Microsoft SPLA audit.
● Significant external industry validation with the award of "Citrix Networking Partner of the Year".
● Cyber security capabilities enhanced by partnering with Falanx Cyber Defence ("Falanx") for protective monitoring services and cyber incident response support.
● Right sizing of the plc Board of Directors, leaving a balanced Board of Chairman Lord Daresbury, CEO Nigel Redwood, FD Niki Redwood and non-executive Directors Nick Bate and Mike Read.
I am very pleased that the team has been able to continue to deliver organic growth whilst continuing with our acquisitive strategy in 2016. When removing the effect of the Modrus acquisition, the underlying growth in monthly recurring revenue was 8% for the year, which is healthy growth for a managed service provider, comparing favourably with our peers. If you then combine the acquisitive strategy, recurring revenue grew by 54% for the year, an exciting number that further endorses the strategic plans we began in 2014. Recurring revenue represents 88% of total revenues providing excellent earnings visibility and a solid base for the strategic direction of the business.
The implications of the BREXIT process and resultant decision of the UK to leave the EU were wide ranging, but in particular we saw two direct impacts. Uncertainty in the lead up to the vote and subsequent result has seen business decisions being delayed, which elongated the timings of sales cycle decision making by potential clients. However, I feel Nasstar weathered that in 2016 and I hope for less uncertainty in 2017. Secondly a direct consequence of the vote was a significant increase in our cost of sales due to the weakening of the Pound against the US Dollar as Nasstar acquires licenses from various vendors in US Dollars which forms a large proportion of our cost of sales. Despite that, Gross Margin was reported to be 69% of sales, a 1% reduction on 2015, due to emphasis on cost reduction and control in other areas of cost of sales helping to offset the impact of the exchange rate pressure.
EBITDA of £3.5m (2015: £2.3m) and full year adjusted EBITDA of £3.8m (2015: £2.9m) were in line with expectations. This was achieved despite a degree of underperformance at VESK which was offset by robust trading from the remaining subsidiaries. The Directors however, had built specific protection in the relevant acquisition agreement which comprised performance-related deferred consideration which was not triggered and the ability to claw back initial consideration shares. Such protection demonstrates a mature and cautious approach to acquisition activity.
As a result of bank covenant leverage targets being surpassed it was pleasing to see the interest margin on our fixed term loan reduce by 0.2% with Net Debt and cash at the end of the year being on target.
The appointment in January 2016 of David McCarthy as Managing Director has proven worthwhile. David has settled in very well and has been instrumental in driving operational change and planning for our integration strategy. At a non-executive level we have rationalised the plc Board with Angus McCaffery and David Redwood both stepping down during the year. I would like to thank both for their valued contribution to Nasstar plc over the years.
We continue to work very closely with Microsoft and Citrix, which was demonstrated by our winning in 2016 of the "Citrix Networking Partner of the Year", a symbolic third party validation of our growing technical capabilities.
Our progressive dividend policy has continued with a final dividend for 2016 being declared of 0.052p (2015: 0.045p) per share, a 16% growth on our maiden dividend declared last year. Furthermore, the Board have a desire to further accelerate the dividend growth in 2018 and beyond.
Whilst much remains to be done in terms of delivering on the various initiatives we have underway for 2017 and beyond, it has been particularly pleasing to see sales progress with new contracts of note being added during 2017. We do recognise however that the competitive landscape in our sector continues to evolve and therefore protection and retention of our current recurring revenue contracts is key to delivering growth and requires more attention than ever. The "Nasstar 10-19" programme is an important part of our response to this market dynamic.
Finally, the dedication, hard work and enthusiasm of all of our staff is the backbone of all we achieve and underpins the success of the Group. I would like to express my gratitude to all new and old team members alike.
Strategic report
Review of the business
The Group is a provider of hosted managed and cloud computing services, integrating private and public clouds supplying a robust, secure and stable hosted Information Technology service to business customers. The Group provides a true end to end service for clients providing them with enhanced IT performance and greater cost control over their IT function. The Group owns its primary data centre, is head quartered in Telford with regional offices in Northampton, London and Bournemouth whilst 24 x 7 support is delivered from its Auckland office in New Zealand. Nasstar is an accredited Microsoft Gold Partner, has G-Cloud 7 status, is the 2016 Citrix Networking Partner of the Year and is certified to ISO27001.
Nasstar specialises in building bespoke cloud hosted services to manage a client's entire application set, tailor made to suit specific industries, designing public, private and hybrid cloud solutions to meet the objectives of the client. The solution is a highly scalable service that provides benefits including "Anywhere Access" to computing; a standardised corporate solution that can be accessed globally in multiple languages; generating cost savings when compared to the traditional IT ownership model whilst replacing capital expenditure with a simple usage based payment model.
The bespoke cloud hosted services includes a comprehensive portfolio of solutions, offering Hosted Desktop, O365, Hosted Exchange, Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and Hosted Telephony services. Additionally, the Group hosts a wide variety of software applications on behalf of clients. Further, the Group provides managed networks and an extensive end user support service. All such services are supplied on a price per user per month basis building a stronger long term recurring revenue relationship with clients.
The Group holds a tier one agreement to sell Microsoft's cloud offerings known as O365 and Azure. The programme enables the Group to supply O365 on a truly flexible per user per month model, with the Group contracting with the end user and retaining full invoicing and customer support. In addition Nasstar is Shared Computer Activation (SCA) accredited. This SCA accreditation enables Nasstar to integrate O365 fully with hybrid platforms. Nasstar are one of only four other Microsoft partners that hold such accreditation today. This has enabled the Group to further integrate the O365 offering into its hosted desktop solution, embracing the innovations of O365 as a clear differentiator over its competitors. In addition, the Cloud Solution Programme (CSP) enables the Group to benefit from the economies derived from the use of the Microsoft Azure platform, Microsoft's hyper scale IaaS offering.
Furthermore, the Group through its central Professional Services Team provides consultancy services on business processes and application development to its clients in its targeted vertical markets. This enhances its added value service to its managed service client base. As an example, through its exclusive sector focus, Nasstar has built strong relationships with the specialist software providers (authors), thus enabling it to offer clients a one-stop solution for all their essential applications.
Nasstar recognises that cyber security continues to be a rapidly changing landscape and therefore bolstered their internal capabilities by partnering with specialist in this area Falanx. Falanx supply protective monitoring services and cyber incident response support for Nasstar as well as additional consulting services for customers. Cyber Defence as a Service for clients as a result is a growing service line adopted by the customer base.
2016 saw the successful execution of the enhanced marketing plan which saw the relaunch of the Nasstar brand and consolidation of the e-know.net and Kamanchi names. This has supplied a proven route for brand consolidation which will see the Modrus and VESK names being dropped in H1 2017. The aim of the brand consolidation was to maximise the respective strengths of the combined offerings and to help differentiate the full stack of services that the Group can offer, thus ensuring maximum cross sell capabilities and revenue synergy opportunities.
The Group continues to specialise in vertical markets widening the sector focus with the acquisition of Modrus which brought with it capabilities and customers in property services and media, adding to the already established sector specialisms of legal, recruitment and finance.
The acquisitive strategy of Nasstar has been driven by the desire to add service portfolio capability and as a result Nasstar can now deliver an end to end managed service. From the client computer on the end users' desk, through the network, telephony and hosting of applications and data, progressing up through the value chain to application consultancy services and development.
Clear focus on creating long standing relationships with clients continues, and is enhanced by the strategy to add more value for a client during the life of a contract through the delivery of more services to meet the client's changing needs. To this end, in 2017 we will be investing in the Business Relationship Management function in order to ensure the complete service portfolio of the entire Group is available to all clients.
The investment into management resources and skill sets during 2015 and 2016 to structure the business more effectively and lay the foundations for future growth has been successful. The addition of David McCarthy as Managing Director in particular has enabled further focus to be channelled on the development and execution of Group strategy with 2017 being a key year for strategic integration and synergy realisation. To this end we have launched our "Nasstar 10-19" programme designed to bring about increased strategic focus across the entire Nasstar business to achieve specific goals by the end of 2019.
This initiative focuses on the following key strategic integration and synergy realisation objectives:
● Align the whole team to a common mission: clear goal, clear priorities
● Develop a common Group wide set of KPI's and governance, ultimately designed to increase the Adjusted EBITDA percentage from 20% to 25% by the end of 2019.
● Develop a single and excellent approach to customer service that is continually improving that directly contributes to reducing churn through increased customer satisfaction.
● Consolidate technology, licences and platforms, which includes the consolidation of data centres and technical platforms to save costs and increase stability.
● Integrate and streamline teams and reporting structures to increase revenue per head by 25%.
● Automate to facilitate efficiencies and realise economies of scale to:
- automate the key manual processes;
- thus breaking the link between revenue and people
- whilst reducing the time between contract signature and revenue recognition.
● Refine the market proposition and service pillars to maximise the fit with our target customers and segments
● Create a structured and effective sales engine that:
continues to meet or beat current organic growth rate;
has a sales mix that maintains at least 85% recurring revenue;
delivers industry focused solutions, combining private and public cloud;
- continues to add key customer contracts each year.
Although the focus in 2017 is on the integration plans previously mentioned, the Group continues to review possible acquisition opportunities as they arise, although always with a clear focus on the assessment of strategic rationale.
We completed the acquisition of Modrus in September 2016 for a total consideration of £13.0 million. £11.7 million of the consideration was paid in cash with the balance satisfied by the issue to the vendors of 17,333,334 new Ordinary Shares. A placing at 7.5p per share to raise £13.3 million funded the cash consideration, with the excess amount raised used to fund deal costs (£0.6 million) and reduce Group debt (£1.0 million).
The focus on specific vertical markets has been a key element to the Group since the acquisition of e-know.net (January 2014), whose focus on regulated businesses (in particular the legal, financial services and recruitment sectors) had been instrumental in its success. Regulated sectors continue to be viewed by the Board as being particularly receptive to hosted IT solutions; the burden of regulation and compliance on these sectors makes them receptive to the high levels of functionality and security provided by an outsourced solution.
The acquisition of Kamanchi (July 2014) added to the Group's expertise in the recruitment sector, whilst the acquisition of VESK (October 2015) added to the Group's presence in the legal and logistics sectors as well as bringing with it G-Cloud accreditation and a Singapore data centre.
The acquisition of Modrus continued in the same vein, adding breadth as well as scale to the Group, which the Directors believe is important in building resilience to future earnings.
Modrus has high levels of recurring revenues (approximately 86 per cent.), long contract duration (typically three years) and low customer churn making it highly complementary to Nasstar's quality of earnings.
The acquisition of Modrus built scale in Nasstar's Recruitment and Financial Services segments and added complementary exposure to vertical markets in which the Group was not currently represented, including Media, Property Services and software vendors.
As well as bringing with it additional technically able staff, the Directors believe that the wider geographic footprint resulting from the acquisition will be helpful in terms of increasing the catchment area from which to recruit suitably qualified technical people in future.
Trading within Modrus has been in line with Board expectations since acquisition and integration is well under way. We were pleased to report in January that Modrus' increased capabilities and technologies in the telephony and networking space had already been successfully cross-sold into the wider Group's customer base and we continue to identify areas in which long term synergies can be achieved.
Performance of the VESK acquisition, as reported previously, fell short of ambitious 2016 targets. The Directors had built specific protection in the relevant acquisition agreement. The protection comprised performance-related deferred consideration of up to £318,750, which has not been triggered, together with a right to claw back initial consideration in the event of further EBITDA shortfall. Accordingly, by agreement between the relevant parties, claw back will take place in the sum of £461,960 in total, which is to be satisfied by the cancellation of 5,279,544 of the initial consideration shares allotted at the time of VESK's acquisition in October 2015.
This process will be structured as a buy-back (and subsequent cancellation of the relevant shares) by the Company, of respective holdings of Nasstar shares out of distributable reserves in consideration, in effect for the write- off of the claw-back amount due.
In order to give effect to the above an ordinary resolution will need to be passed by shareholders. The appropriate resolution will be put to members at the Company's AGM on 25 May 2017. In the intervening period the affected shareholders have agreed to waive any dividends declared and also to refrain from voting, in respect of the relevant ordinary shares. James Mackie left the Group in January 2017 and his position as Head of Sales for the Group was filled by the internal promotion of Mark Flynn, who previously led the sales function at Modrus. Mark reports directly to Nigel Redwood.
Gross margin reduced to 69% from 70% reflecting the increased cost of licences bought in USD due to the weakening of the pound against the dollar as a direct result of BREXIT. Adjusted EBITDA margins reflect the investment made during the year into the enhanced marketing plan and name consolidation, together with the management investment noted last year. This investment into management demonstrated the commitment to investing in management resource and skill set to structure the Group more effectively and facilitate the integration plans for 2017.
Reported loss before tax was £1.8m after exceptional expenses of £207,000 which were costs in relation to acquisitions.
The Microsoft SPLA audit was a significant process covering 5 years of SPLA declarations, much management time was expended in providing assistance to the auditors and we were pleased to bring the process to a conclusion in December 2016.
In addition £3.4m of amortisation of customer contracts has been charged to the Consolidated Statement of Profit and Loss in respect of acquired customer contract intangible assets, the increase of £950,000 compared to prior year is due to a full year of amortisation costs in respect of the VESK intangibles and four months of amortisation of the Modrus intangible assets.
Adjusted earnings per share stood at 0.6p (2015: 0.7p) with a statutory loss per share recorded of 0.3p (2015: 0.1p) as a result of the exceptional items and amortisation charges referred to above.
Customer contracts were valued at the time of each acquisition to assess their fair value. The fair value of Modrus customer contracts at acquisition was £6.2m resulting in goodwill on acquisition of £7.3m.
Leverage targets, in relation to the bank loan raised to fund the VESK acquisition, were met and interest margin reduced to 2.75% from 2.95% as a result.
The Modrus acquisition was funded by the placing of 177,333,334 ordinary shares at 7.5p per share raising £13.3m of which £11.7m was used to fund the cash consideration for Modrus. The Group showed a net debt position of £2.8m at the year end with £3m cash in the bank.
Fixed asset additions for the year were £2.2m this was primarily servers and storage area network infrastructure to provide a platform for future growth and technology consolidation together with investment needed in fixed assets on the renewal of the Group's largest customer contract. As a result depreciation as a percentage of sales increased moderately to 7% from 6% last year. It was also necessary to restate Modrus' fixed asset book values to correct historic treatment of fixed assets, this was also a contributing factor to the increase in depreciation charge for the year.
The Group notes IFRS15 Revenue from Contracts with Customers which is to be adopted for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2018. The Group also notes IFRS 16 Leases which is to be adopted for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2019.
A detailed review is underway to assess the impact of these new standards, at this time it is not practical to provide a reasonable estimate of the effect of implementation.
Alternative performance measures
In order to provide useful information to users of these financial statements about the Group's performance and present information in a way that reflects how the directors monitor and measure the performance of the Group, the directors believe it is appropriate to present the results of the Group using selected alternative performance measures.
The following provides an indication of the purpose and definition of each of the alternative performance measures presented in the Annual report and financial statements, together with an appropriate reference to IFRS measures presented in the IFRS financial statements, where applicable.
Monthly recurring revenue run rate represents the monthly revenue contracted under managed service contracts with clients and reflects revenue contracted but not yet delivered. Monthly revenue from these contracts is recognised on a straight line basis over the life of the contract. Monthly recurring revenue at the year end gives an indication of the revenue likely to be recognised from these contracts in future months.
Underlying growth is growth achieved compared to the previous year, excluding the impact of acquisitions, in both periods, to provide clearer comparative information with regard to organic performance.
Recurring % of total reported revenue is the total revenue recognised in the period from recurring revenue contracts as a percentage of total revenue. Net debt is calculated as cash less interest bearing loans and borrowings.
*adjusted for amortisation of acquired intangibles, share based payments and exceptional items
A final dividend for 2015 of 0.045p per share was paid on 2 July 2016.
It is proposed to pay a final dividend of 0.052p in respect of 2016 on 10 July 2017 to shareholders on the register at the close of business on 9 June 2017, subject to approval at the Company's Annual General Meeting on 25 May 2017. In accordance with accounting standards, this dividend is not accounted for in the financial statements for the period under review as it had not been committed as at 31 December 2016.
The Board has adopted a progressive dividend policy, subject always to the free cash generation of the Group and the investment required to deliver sustainable growth in revenues and profits.
The Group recognises the importance of environmental impact management and is committed to playing a part in helping society address climate change and as a result has an Environmental Impact Management System. The primary purpose of this is to measure and manage the environmental impact of the business.
The Group is committed to meeting the requirements of Environmental Impact Management good practice and is continually seeking ways in which it can improve. Everyone within the Group has an important role to play to ensure that the environmental impact of the business is kept to a minimum and each member of staff has their own specific tasks and responsibilities to that end.
The Group expects the business's core behaviour of professionalism and customer focus to be reflected in the Environmental Impact Management processes and procedures.
Datapoint House, the Group's primary, state of the art, data centre is one of the most eco-friendly and advanced facilities in the UK, incorporating leading technologies for free cooling and efficient operation. The Group takes a comprehensive approach to measuring its PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) and is constantly reviewing technologies that can further increase the efficiency of the facility to drive the PUE rating down further. This is demonstrated by the recent deployment of extra intelligence to the air conditioning cooling systems in the primary data centre which has seen the PUE rating improve from 1.7 to 1.6.
Recycling is enforced company wide as is WEEE (waste, electrical and electronic equipment) disposal, with this also offered as a service to clients. The Group encourages eco-friendly methods of commuting for its staff through optional cycle to work and bus pass schemes.
Principal Risks and Uncertainties
Competition and product development
The Group operates as a provider of hosted managed and cloud computing services. Whilst the Board considers this to be a market with considerable growth potential, there is a risk that the Group's business will not meet current expectations if the sales assumptions are incorrect. The market for hosted desktop, cloud computing services and hosted exchange is competitive and, given that the Board believes that the market is fast-growing, it is likely that competition will increase, which could affect the Group's sales performance. Large and well-funded businesses may decide to enter the market and this could affect the Group's ability to achieve its sales forecasts. As the market becomes more competitive and commoditised there is a risk that the Group's gross profit margin per user may reduce, and there is a risk that customer churn will increase as a result of competition. As a mitigation to this risk the Group in 2016 consolidated to a single brand name and embarked on a significantly enhanced marketing plan. The aim of the brand consolidation is to maximise the respective strengths of the combined offerings and to help differentiate the full stack of services that the Group can offer. The directors monitor the rate and causes of churn and implement strategies with the aim to minimising customer churn. Finally the investment into R&D and innovation ensures the Group's solutions evolve so customers are offered a mix of public and private cloud based services that, when, combined differentiate the solution from the competition thus helping protect overall gross profit margins.
Credit risk
Credit risk arises principally from the Group's trade and other receivables. It is a risk that the counterparty fails to discharge its obligation in respect of the instrument. The maximum exposure to credit risk equals the carrying value of these items in the financial statements. The Group uses credit reference software which monitors customer's credit risk and has strong credit control procedures in place, with regular review by management of receivable balances.
Liquidity risk
Liquidity risk arises principally from the Group's management of working capital and the amount of funding committed to its software and hardware platforms. It is a risk that the Group will encounter difficulty in meeting its financial obligations as they fall due.
The Group's policy is to ensure that it will always have sufficient cash to allow it to meet its liabilities when they become due. The principal liabilities of the Group and company arise in respect of operational and administrative expenditure, trade and other payables and the servicing of interest bearing debt which comprises lease finance obligations and bank loans. Trade and other payables are all payable within four months.
The Board receives cash flow projections on a regular basis as well as information on cash balances.
Interest rate risk
The Group is exposed to interest rate risk on bank loans as bank interest rates change, this is monitored regularly by the Board. The Group is also exposed to interest rate risk in respect of surplus funds held on deposit. The Board does not currently undertake hedging arrangements, although interest rates and exposure to fluctuations are regularly reviewed by management.
Currency risk
The Group purchases licences from various software vendors in USD and is therefore exposed to risk from currency fluctuations. The Group undertakes a limited number of forward contracts for payments in USD. The timing and amounts of payments are known in advance enabling forward contracts to be used to manage foreign exchange risk. At 31 December 2016 the Group held $346,000 and €131,000 in cash balances.
A small number of European customers are invoiced in Euros. The risk from currency fluctuation is managed by protection within the customer service terms and conditions enabling the Group to adjust pricing with any significant currency fluctuation.
Compliance risk
The Group acquires Microsoft licensing via the Service Provider Licensing Agreement (SPLA) programme. Such licensing models see the Group declare license volumes and versions on a provider declaration basis which is subsequently audited approximately every 5 years. Microsoft have the ability to change pricing and usage rights on a regular basis which can directly impact the cost base of a solution. The Group annually review the usage rights of each product and rely on an internal database to interrogate Active Directory to report license usage by user. Such license declaration costs were equivalent to 16% of revenue for the year ended 31 December 2016.
The Group is pleased to report that during 2016 Nasstar Group Limited concluded a full five year Microsoft SPLA audit.
Cybercrime risk
Nasstar recognise that the threat landscape from cybercrime is ever changing and mitigation techniques need continual appraisal. This is further evidenced by a report published in January 2017 by Kroll, the risk management company, that stated the number of UK businesses affected by corporate fraud and cybercrime has risen by 16% over the past year. Nasstar therefore recognise the importance of having systemic processes in place to prevent, detect and respond to the risk of cybercrime. Therefore to enhance Nasstar's capabilities in this area, the Group has partnered with Falanx consuming protective monitoring services and cyber incident response support services from them.
Acquisition and integration risk
The Group has continued with the planned strategy of augmenting organic growth with acquisitions during the year, the Group recognises that acquisitions may not always realise the benefits expected at the time of completion. Furthermore a failure to successfully integrate acquisitions may impact on Group profitability and cause operational disturbance. The Group mitigates this risk by undertaking detailed due diligence and ensuring adequate protection in the acquisition agreements by undertaking warranties and indemnities from vendors and mechanisms for adjustment of the purchase price if trading is not in line with expectations, whenever possible.
Revenue risk
Concentration in a limited number of clients carries the risk that fluctuations in revenue could be significant. The Group continues to develop a strong pipeline to broaden the customer base. Time from acquisition of a new customer to recognition of the revenue from that customer can be substantial due to the complexity of solutions particularly for larger customers. A dedicated project management office has been created to manage and monitor the progress of implementations of new customers and significant delays reported to management. Protection is also built into customer contracts to ensure customer caused delays do not impact on revenue recognition.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank our loyal and hardworking team of employees. Our business is built on relationships with people and the stability of our teams. The Group recognises that success is dependent on the experience, motivation and skill of its people. It is recognised that staff retention is key, and therefore our core values, employee of the month and year schemes, benefit packages, training and career development opportunities ensure that employees are supported and motivated for success. At the end of the financial year, the number of employees of the Group was as follows:
Whilst we continue to assess the wider economic implications of the UK's decision to leave the EU the board recognises the continued uncertainty in the macro economic outlook as well as the adverse impact that continues to have on Sterling, and thus a proportion of Nasstar's cost of sales. The Board does however believe the Group remains well positioned, benefiting from high levels of recurring revenue, providing an essential service to its clients on a more reliable, efficient and flexible cost basis than they would likely be able to achieve internally.
Nasstar continue to see an organic growth opportunity within the market place for managed service solutions based on public and private cloud hybrid technologies and feel that the Group continues to be well positioned to take advantage of that opportunity. Organic growth, combined together with the integration and rationalisation programmes being prioritised in 2017 should continue to deliver strong catalysts for improvement in shareholder value.


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Performance not two-die four.
When designing an integrated circuit, you are attempting to fit as much complexity as possible within your budget of space, power, and so forth. One harsh limitation for GPUs is that, while your workloads could theoretically benefit from more and more processing units, the number of usable chips from a batch shrinks as designs grow, and the reticle limit of a fab's manufacturing node is basically a brick wall.
What's one way around it? Split your design across multiple dies!
NVIDIA published a research paper discussing just that. In their diagram, they show two examples. In the first diagram, the GPU is a single, typical die that's surrounded by four stacks of HBM, like GP100; the second configuration breaks the GPU into five dies, four GPU modules and an I/O controller, with each GPU module attached to a pair of HBM stacks.
NVIDIA ran simulations to determine how this chip would perform, and, in various workloads, they found that it out-performed the largest possible single-chip GPU by about 45.5%. They scaled up the single-chip design until it had the same amount of compute units as the multi-die design, even though this wouldn't work in the real world because no fab could actual lithograph it. Regardless, that hypothetical, impossible design was only ~10% faster than the actually-possible multi-chip one, showing that the overhead of splitting the design is only around that much, according to their simulation. It was also faster than the multi-card equivalent by 26.8%.
While NVIDIA's simulations, run on 48 different benchmarks, have accounted for this, I still can't visualize how this would work in an automated way. I don't know how the design would automatically account for fetching data that's associated with other GPU modules, as this would probably be a huge stall. That said, they spent quite a bit of time discussing how much bandwidth is required within the package, and figures of 768 GB/s to 3TB/s were mentioned, so it's possible that it's just the same tricks as fetching from global memory. The paper touches on the topic several times, but I didn't really see anything explicit about what they were doing.
If you've been following the site over the last couple of months, you'll note that this is basically the same as AMD is doing with Threadripper and EPYC. The main difference is that CPU cores are isolated, so sharing data between them is explicit. In fact, when that product was announced, I thought, "Huh, that would be cool for GPUs. I wonder if it's possible, or if it would just end up being Crossfire / SLI."
Apparently not? It should be possible?
I should note that I doubt this will be relevant for consumers. The GPU is the most expensive part of a graphics card. While the thought of four GP102-level chips working together sounds great for 4K (which is 4x1080p in resolution) gaming, quadrupling the expensive part sounds like a giant price-tag. That said, the market of GP100 (and the upcoming GV100) would pay five-plus digits for the absolute fastest compute device for deep-learning, scientific research, and so forth.
The only way I could see this working for gamers is if NVIDIA finds the sweet-spot for performance-to-yield (for a given node and time) and they scale their product stack with multiples of that. In that case, it might be cost-advantageous to hit some level of performance, versus trying to do it with a single, giant chip.
This is just my speculation, however. It'll be interesting to see where this goes, whenever it does.
Ryzen Locking on Certain FMA3 Workloads
Subject: Processors | March 15, 2017 - 05:51 PM | Josh Walrath
Tagged: ryzen, Infinity Fabric, hwbot, FMA3, Control Fabric, bug, amd, AM4
Last week a thread was started at the HWBOT forum and discussed a certain workload that resulted in a hard lock every time it was run. This was tested with a variety of motherboards and Ryzen processors from the 1700 to the 1800X. In no circumstance at default power and clock settings did the processor not lock from the samples that they have worked on, as well as products that contributors have been able to test themselves.
This is quite reminiscent of the Coppermine based Pentium III 1133 MHz processor from Intel which failed in one specific workload (compiling). Intel had shipped a limited number of these CPUs at that time, and it was Kyle from HardOCP and Tom from Tom's Hardware that were the first to show this behavior in a repeatable environment. Intel stopped shipping these models and had to wait til the Tualatin version of the Pentium III to be released to achieve that speed (and above) and be stable in all workloads.
The interesting thing about this FMA3 finding is that it is seen to not be present in some overclocked Ryzen chips. To me this indicates that it could be a power delivery issue with the chip. A particular workload that heavily leans upon the FPU could require more power than the chip's Control Fabric can deliver, therefore causing a hard lock. Several tested overclocked chips with much more power being pushed to them seems as though enough power is being applied to the specific area of the chip to allow the operation to be completed successfully.
This particular fact implies to me that AMD does not necessarily have a bug such as what Intel had with the infamous F-Div issue with the original Pentium, or AMD's issue with the B2 stepping of Phenom. AMD has a very complex voltage control system that is controlled by the Control Fabric portion of the Infinity Fabric. With a potential firmware or microcode update this could be a fixable problem. If this is the case, then AMD would simply increase power being supplied to the FPU/SIMD/SSE portion of the Ryzen cores. This may come at a cost through lower burst speeds to keep TDP within their stated envelope.
A source at AMD has confirmed this issue and that a fix will be provided via motherboard firmware update. More than likely this comes in the form of an updated AGESA protocol.
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subset: commoncrawl


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|Greening of the Willow
Sometimes, when it is in full leaf, I go up there to trim and hubby doesn't see me. He couldn't if he tried because it's so dense with leaves. I watch him go from here to there to the neighbor's house and back. It is too funny, but I let him go. Then I'll call him from up in the tree. 'Where are you?' he says. 'I'm up here!' I say. He just shakes his head and lets me do my thing. This tree, in the pic, is about 30' high. I only go as high as I can before the branches sway. As it gets older, I'll go up higher!
We planted the tree about 8 or 9 years ago. This spot got a lot of water and you can see the tree loves it here. We bought a companion for it about 5 years ago and the smaller tree is still small. It grew a little bit, but not like this one. If you look closely, I have a small white bird feeder in it. I build these out of scrap wood and place them in a lot of my trees. I have about 7 around the yard. I have another one that was given to me and one I bought. I'll be making more feeders soon because these ones are starting to rot a bit. The birds don't care. They've been asking for seed and I've been procrastinating about filling the feeders. I'll make a note to do it tomorrow.
That's it for today. Take care. Climb safely! ; )


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LittleBig was founded in 2004 to offer a new style of agency service to the world's finest artists. Primarily concert and tour booking but also special events, management and consultancy. LittleBig is a selective agency focused on nurturing long-term working relationships with artists, managers and promoters. Beginning in England but now with headquarters in Berlin, the LittleBig operation is truly international with a global network. We dedicate ourselves to developing the live careers of artists we believe in and are inspired by. We aim to be an exciting and cutting edge organisation that can help build amazing things and give people special experiences. We like very big things and very small things, and enjoy turning little to big.
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Bachelor Party (Angel)
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|"Bachelor Party"
|Angel episode
|Episode no.
Season 1
Episode 7
|Directed by
|David Straiton
|Written by
|Tracey Stern
|Production code
|Original air date
|November 16, 1999
|Guest appearance(s)
"Bachelor Party" is episode 7 of season 1 in the television show Angel. Written by Tracey Stern and directed by David Straiton, it originally broadcast on November 16, 1999 on the WB network.
Doyle is trying to talk Angel into having some fun, telling him he spends way too much time on "this whole redemption thing" when Cordy walks in ready for a date with a handsome rich man she has met. After Cordy and her date, a stock broker named Pierce, leave, Doyle picks up a book Angel was reading and his bookmark, a photo of Buffy, falls out. Doyle, having never met Buffy, does not realize it's her and starts to show an interest in her. With a hurt look upon his face Angel looks away, and Doyle realizes it is Buffy. Doyle then apologizes and puts the photo back. Immediately after, Doyle has a vision of a young man being held captive in a nest of vampires. While they go to clear it out and save the prisoner, Cordelia is on her date, incredibly bored because Pierce only talks about his work. As Angel and Doyle leave, a straggler vampire follows them to the office. He arrives there just as Cordelia's date drops her off. When the vampire walks up to them and attacks Cordelia, Pierce immediately gets in his car and flees, leaving Cordelia with the vampire. Luckily, Doyle appears at the door carrying a crossbow and, after a struggle, stakes the vampire with an arrow.
After things have settled, Cordelia expresses her frustration that, as a result of her experiences in Sunnydale, she now looks for bravery in potential suitors as well, and that she was impressed with Doyle's bravery during the confrontation with the vampire. As she tries to ask him out for some time together, Doyle's estranged wife, Harriet, asks for a divorce so she'll be free to marry her new love, Richard. Though quite surprised to learn this piece of Doyle's past, Angel and Cordelia do all they can to support their friend. With the wedding a few days away, Cordelia accepts Harry's invitation to her bridal shower and Doyle accepts the invitation to Richard's bachelor party. That night, Angel follows Richard and sees him accept a strange package from a car and then go to a restaurant kitchen with Harry. Upon seeing Richard change into a red, scaly demon, Angel breaks through the restaurant window and intervenes, thinking Richard plans to kill her. However, he discovers that Richard, as Harry already knew, is an Ano-movic demon, a race that used to be quite violent and savage, but has since become fully integrated in modern society and runs a series of luxurious restaurants, including the one they're in. The package Richard accepted was some unspecified, and "not strictly speaking illegal" foodstuff.
Though Richard and Harry know that Doyle was the one who put Angel up to following him, they still let Doyle come to the bachelor party. However, as the viewers find out, they plan to have Richard consume Doyle's brain as part of a pre-wedding ritual. At the party, Richard asks Doyle for his blessing in the marriage (Doyle being unaware that he is asking for consent in eating his brain). At the party, Angel, whom Doyle invited along, strays from the party and sees one of the family elders chanting ritualistically to a knife. After calling Harry and asking for a translation of the chanting, Angel is beaten and thrown out of the restaurant by some of Richard's relatives. At the party, Doyle gives Richard his blessing and is strapped into a wooden box with his head exposed. After being given local anasthesia to his head, Doyle learns that Richard is planning to consume his brain in order to bless his marriage as part of an ancient Ano-movic tradition (it hasn't been done in ages because no Ano-movic has married a previously married partner in that time). At the bridal shower, Harry and Cordelia translate what Angel heard and, after one of Richard's female relatives slips up, realize what they are up to and go to the bachelor party to stop them. Just as Richard are about to cut open Doyle's skull, Angel breaks through the door and starts fighting them. In the struggle, Doyle's bonds are broken, he transforms into his demon self and joins the fight.
At that moment, Cordelia and Harry burst in. Cordelia hits Doyle with a tray, not realizing that it's him, and he transforms back without her noticing. Harry berates Richard for not telling what he was planning and for still adhering to the Ano-movics' ancient, barbaric ways and breaks off her engagement to Richard. Back at the office, Doyle has another vision, this time of Buffy fighting something.
Guest star Carlos Jacott also appeared in two other Mutant Enemy produced television shows: he played Ken in "Anne", the first episode of the third season of Buffy, and Lawrence Dobson on the pilot episode of Firefly.
- Crossover with Buffy: In the last scene, Doyle has a vision of Buffy in danger. Angel goes to Sunnydale in "Pangs".
- Doyle fulfills the first half of his promise ("Rm w/a Vu") to tell Angel the story of his life by confessing salient points of his failed relationship with Harriet.
- Cordelia also mentions her previous relationship with Xander Harris during the second and third seasons of Buffy.
- Cordelia's line 'I think it, I say it' is a minor reference to her thoughts on the episode of Buffy where Buffy gains telepathy.
Arc significance[edit]
Doyle has at least two significant opportunities to show Cordelia his demon face, neither of which he takes. The first is when he fights the stalker vamp and chooses to struggle unaugmented rather than reveal his mixed heritage. The second comes when Harry and Cordelia walk in on the boys' mêlée. Doyle has just been knocked flying and is lying out of sight under the table in one of the restaurant booths. He groggily sits up during Harry's tirade—still in demon form. Cordelia, in an excess of concern for her friend, Doyle, vents some of her anger and anxiety by grabbing a handy serving tray and repeatedly bashing the blue-green, spiny thing she believes to be one of the evil, brain-eating demons. Angel hastily comes to Doyle's rescue, both pulling Cordy off and distracting her so she won't see him morph back to human form. It remains unclear whether Cordelia recognizes him as the same person when Doyle deliberately shows her his demon face in "Hero".
External links[edit]
|Wikiquote has quotations related to: Bachelor Party


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Everyone's probably seen those floating thermometers made up of a big tube with various weighted spheres inside with number tags hanging where the current temperature is the ball that floats the lowest. Well here's a new take on the principle discovered by the famed scientist with the Galileo Thermometer. This clean looking classy design features just a single floating disk encased between a pair of glass panes.
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Lily's Home Galileo Weather Station with Galileo Thermometer, Admiral Fitzroy Storm Glass, a Precision Quartz Clock and Hygrometer


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A little girl in Sooke, British Columbia was having some trouble sleeping. She was afraid of monsters, and this fear was keeping her awake at night, unable to relax and let the sandman pay her a visit. Her dad saw that she was having some trouble, and he wanted to do something to help. What he did was absolutely incredible.
He paid a visit to his local drug store, a Shoppers Drug Mart, and spoke to the pharmacy technician. His idea was simple: fill a spray bottle with "monster spray" and add some pharmacy labels to make it look official. Fortunately, the technician was totally on board.
Dee Vivian, the pharmacy technician, spoke to BuzzFeed Canada, explaining that the man came in and asked for some labels to put on the spray bottle. He needed them for his daughter, Mya, whose fear of monsters was harming her sleep schedule. Vivian agreed to help him, adding a label that outlined the directions for spray use and a few, perfect warning labels. She said that he brought in a picture and asked them to use it as an example.
As if that wasn't enough, Vivian didn't even charge him for her help. Thanks to her kindness, Mya is safe from the monsters and able to sleep again.
Via: BuzzFeed


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Seishin Taba
Posted On August 8th, 2011 - Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Aug. 1, 2011
Seishin "Jack" Taba, 84, of Honolulu, a retired painter and an Army veteran, died in Honolulu. He was born in Honolulu. He is survived by sister Lillian Chinen and numerous nephews and nieces. Visitation: 9 a.m. Tuesday at Borthwick Mortuary. Celebration of life: 10 a.m. Burial: 1 p.m. at National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Punchbowl. Online condolences: www.borthwickoahu.com.
Posted in Death Notices


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The Cold War has been over for some time now, but plenty of historical remnants from that time can still be found all across America. One of the crazier examples has got to be the crater at Mars Bluff, South Carolina. You see, this is the place the US Air Force accidentally dropped a nuclear bomb on American soil in 1958.
March 11, 1958 was just another day for Walter Gregg and his family when, suddenly, a giant explosion rocked the whole property and destroyed large sections of their home.
What Walter and his family didn't know was that a B-47 Stratojet was flying just overhead that morning, on its way to the UK for training exercises. At the time, all bombers were required to carry a nuclear payload in case of a nuclear war breaking out while they were up in the air (paranoia was at an all-time high). This particular plane was carrying a Mark 6 atomic bomb.
Thankfully, this Mark 6 didn't have the nuclear rod inserted, or else the scene would have looked a lot more like the picture below.
While passing over Gregg's property, a warning light regarding the bomb's docking system began to flash. Apparently, it was an issue with the locking pin. The plane's navigator, Captain Bruce Kulka went to investigate, but accidentally pressed the bomb's emergency release while attempting to fix the locking pin.
The 8,500 pound bomb's weight quickly caused the bay doors to open, and it began its freefall toward the woods of Mars Bluff below. Although it had no nuclear rods, the bomb's explosve charges did go off on impact, creating a crater measuring roughly 75 feet in diameter and 30 feet deep.
Thankfully, no one died in the explosion, though it did do some pretty extensive damage to surrounding buildings. Still, just think how much worse it could have been if the bomb's nuclear capacity had been active.
The Greggs were given $54,000 to repair the damages and stay quiet about the whole incident. This was also right around the time a new rule was introduced: all planes had to make sure to check that their payloads are properly locked before take-off.
Some of the bomb fragments were recovered and displayed at a local museum.
Now that's what I call a major "oops" moment. Had it been fully armed, this might easily have started the next World War, or at least had a major impact on the outcome of the Cold War. All because of a simple mistake. Thankfully, we're all still here to laugh about it.
Credit: Atlas Obscura


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https://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Short-Selected-Tales-Story-org/dp/1944853480/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1510617448&sr=8-1&keywords=nothing+short+of Thank you, Grant Faulkner and Lynn Mundell, for including Sister's Boyfriend in Nothing Short Of 100 Anthology now available for pre-order and out in April, 2018 … Continue reading
Tag Archives: Anthology
Won 3rd prize in the Bristol Short Story Prize Contest (10th year) for The World Gravitates Towards the Ditch, October 2017 … Continue reading
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1976349362/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505917509&sr=1-1&keywords=Exquisite+Duet+2016 The Exquisite Duet 2016 Anthology is available for purchase. The brilliant writers included are: Aaron Apps, Christopher Allen, Paul Beckman, Matthew Burnside, Jonathan Cardew, Marty Case, James Claffey, Antonia Crane, Steven Dunn, Brian Alan Ellis, Kathy Fish, Deb Henry, … Continue reading
2017 Bristol Short Story Prize Shortlist … Continue reading
http://www.kysoflash.com/Books.aspx#KF2 E-Go is published in KYSO Flash 2015 Anthology #2, July 2016 Thank you, Clare MacQueen! … Continue reading
http://bigtablepublishing.com/blmanth1 Thank you so much, Robin Stratton … Continue reading
http://megtuite.com/the-house-that-m…ssays-april-2016/ The House That Made Me Anthology is available for purchase: 19 writers googled homes they lived in and wrote essays on experiences. Thank you, Grant Jarrett, for putting this beauty together and Spark Publishing for putting it out … Continue reading
http://www.amazon.com/Case-We-Die-Aaron-Dietz/dp/0996352635/ Root People was published in the anthology, In Case We Die, edited by Bud Smith and Aaron Dietz. Get a copy! It's mesmerizing! … Continue reading
https://www.createspace.com/6029871 Exquisite Duet 2015 Anthology is published in Vagrant Lightning Press, January 2015 Contributors: Rusty Barnes, Kate Braverman, Randall Brown, Helene Cardona, Kim Chinquee, Myfanwy Collins, Jack Cooper, Michael Cooper, Brennan DeFrisco, Larry Eby, Timothy Green, Tom Hazuka, Sara Henning, … Continue reading


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Illinois State Police say a woman whose nude body was found Tuesday in Brooklyn is a 44-year-old St. Louis woman.
The victim is Natasha Miko Brown. She had been shot to death. Police said her last known residence was in the 4200 block of Farlin Avenue in St. Louis.
Her body was found Tuesday by a railroad worker, in an overgrown field adjacent to railroad tracks in the 200 block of South Second Street.
State Police Lt. Dave Bivens said an autopsy, which was done Tuesday, revealed that Brown's death was the result of a gunshot wound. Bivens said he couldn't comment on whether police think Brown was killed there, or if her body was dumped there.
"It's real early in our investigation. We are trying to determine whether she was dumped there or not," Bivens said.
Bivens said the woman was last seen alive in St. Louis on March 25.
Police have said it's not clear how long the woman's body had been there.
Police initially were uncertain of the woman's identity. Her body did not have any identifying marks, other than a gold front tooth.
Police asked that anyone with information contact Illinois State Police at 346-3990.


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|Offer Details:
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|Vodafone.in CPS India
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|Date Added:
|Oct 11, 2017
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Set your location
back toHomeTrainingQualificationsSite Management
This training program covers the skills and knowledge needed by site supervisors in the low rise residential sector of the building industry. It is also a requirement in some states and territories to obtain a low rise residential supervisors registration (or local equivalent).
Learn to co-ordinate the construction of a building – taking responsibility for the overall completion of the job – including selecting contractors, overseeing the work and its quality, and liaising with the client.
On successful completion you will be issued with the Nationally Recognised qualification:
This training program has been grouped into a series of ten (10) short courses, which provide a progressive and practical learning experience. The short courses are:
More detailed information on the content and format of this qualification can be found in the 'Nationally Recognised training details' section of this page.
Site managers and supervisors (or those working towards those roles) in the building and construction industry.
HIA will conduct a pre-enrolment review with you to make sure that this program is suitable for your needs, current skills and experience.
The program could take you between 6–12 months to complete, dependant on how the training is scheduled in your region. You will need to commit 23 days of face-to-face learning time for this training. Outside of this allocation of time, you will need to undertake self-directed learning through research and assessments.
During this training, participants must have access to specific resources. Resources may include various codes and standards that are relevant to the subject matter. You may already have some or all of these resources, however it would cost approximately $960 for HIA members to purchase them all (correct at time of publishing). Your regional HIA Training staff can provide you with a list of these required resources and their indicative costs.
CPC40508 Certificate IV in Building and Construction (Site Management)
To achieve this qualification, you must demonstrate competency in:
15 nationally recognised units of competency.
HIA Training Services has grouped the units of competency into a series of short courses which provide you with a practical and progressive learning experience. The short courses are listed below, along with the units of competency that are contained within them.
The elective units [E] listed below represent the only approved elective unit options offered by HIA. This is a reduced list which has been taken from the specified electives list contained within the packaging rules for this qualification.
CPCCBC4009B Apply legal requirements to building and construction projects [C]
BSBCUS301 Deliver and monitor a service to customers [E]
BSBLDR402 Lead effective workplace relationships [E]
CPCCBC4010B Apply structural principles to residential low rise constructions [C]
CPCCBC4005A Produce labour and material schedules for ordering [E]
CPCCBC4007A Plan building or construction work [C]
* In addition to the face-to-face attendance duration listed above, all short courses also require self-directed learning through research, project work and assessment tasks for successful completion.
The duration of short courses may vary dependant on the HIA region delivering this course – some short courses may have a longer face-to-face duration than that indicated above. A detailed training schedule will be discussed with you prior to confirmation of your enrolment.
Call HIA Training on 1300 650 620 to obtain more detailed information about this training program.


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Nashville is the capital of the American state of Tennessee. It is sometimes called the "Country Music Capital of the World" or more often "Music City, USA"; however, in recent years, Nashville has done much to escape its country music image and become a regional center of culture and commerce.
Click on the picture for video. Click here for Pictures.


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ASU Wrestlers Return To Action Wednesday
Dec. 18, 2000
This Week: After taking the past two and a half weeks off for finals, the 10th-ranked Arizona State wrestling squad (3-0 overall, 0-0 Pac-10) returns to action Wednesday, Dec. 20 at the Reno Tournament of Champions in Reno, Nev. The Sun Devils will be competing against No. 11 Boise State, UC Davis, Cal Poly, Cal State Bakersfield, Central Michigan, Indiana, Lassen Junior College, No. 1 Oklahoma State, No. 17 Oregon, Penn State, Portland State and Stanford. Last year at the Reno Tournament of Champions, ASU finished third for the second-straight year with 118 points. A total of nine Sun Devils placed in the tournament, led by All-American Steve Blackford who captured the 165 pound title.
Probable Starters:
125: Jeff Charlebois (8-3), So./Chris Knox (0-2), RS-Fr.
133: David Douglas (5-2), Jr.
141: Dan Hyman (5-2), Sr.
149: Dana Holland (10-3), Jr.
157: Rocky Smart (7-2), So.
165: Steve Blackford (7-1), Sr.
174: Curtis Owen (7-4), Jr./Ron Renzi (2-2), RS-Fr.
184: R.D. Pursell (7-2), Sr.
197: Andy Swanson (3-4), RS-Fr./Mike Marshall (7-1), Sr.
HWT: Kellan Fluckiger (7-3), So.
Larkin Out For Three Weeks:Due to nagging injuries, sophomore Eric Larkin will not be a part of the Sun Devil lineup for the next three weeks. 'Now is the time to let Eric heal up so he can be healthy for the second half of the season,' ASU head coach Lee Roy Smith said. 'We expect to have him back at full speed in about three weeks and then those injuries will be behind him.' Larkin, who won the 141-pound title at the Las Vegas Invitational Dec. 2, has a perfect 9-0 record this season, including three wins by fall, one by technical fall and five by major decision.
ASU Ranked No. 1 in the Pac-10:The Sun Devils are the top team in the Pac-10 according to the most recent conference poll released Dec. 14th. Seven individuals also rank among the top four wrestlers in the Pac-10 including No. 1 Eric Larkin (141), No. 1 Steve Blackford (165), No. 2 David Douglas (133), No. 2 Dana Holland (149), No. 2 Curtis Owen (174), No. 3 Rocky Smart (157) and No. 4 Kellan Fluckiger (HWT). ASU opens its Pac-10 season Friday, Jan. 5 with Cal Poly in Wells Fargo at 7 p.m.
Sun Devils in the National Polls:ASU is ranked 10th for the second-straight week according to the lastest National Wrestling Coaches Association Poll released Dec. 13. Four Sun Devils are also included in the individual rankings released by InterMat and Amateur Wrestling News. Eric Larkin (141) is ranked third by both polls, while Steve Blackford (165) is ranked third by AWM and fourth by InterMat. Rocky Smart (157) checks in at No. 16 according to AWM and No. 17 according to InterMat. In the 133 pound weight class, David Douglas is ranked 15th in both polls.
Last Time Out:Sophomore All-American Eric Larkin won six straight matches to capture the 141 pound championship title, leading the 10th-ranked Arizona State wrestling squad to a fourth-place finish at the 19th annual Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational at the Desert Star Arena in Primm, Nev. Dec. 1-2.
Larkin was untouchable throughout the two-day tournament, winning his first match by technical fall over Ryan Montanez of Air Force (19-3, 6:15) and taking his second bout by pinning North Carolina's Jonathon Williams at 4:38. He then went on to win his next four matches by major decision, including a 11-3 victory over Sean Gray of Virginia in the championship bout.
The Sun Devils finished only behind Illinois (156 points), Nebraska (113.5 points) and Lehigh (105.5 points). ASU ended the two-day affair with 89.5 points, while Pac-10 opponents Oregon State (fifth, 88.5), Oregon (seventh, 83.5) and Boise State (eighth, 78.5) rounded out top-10 team finishers.
Senior All-American Steve Blackford (165) won his first four matches (including by a fall and major decision), while junior David Douglas (148) won his first three (including by a fall, technical fall and major decision) until semifinal defeats sent them both to the consolation bracket. Then Blackford was forced to withdraw due to an injury, and Douglas fell in a close 3-2 match to Shawn Kegal of Buffalo.
Sophomore Rocky Smart was the fourth ASU wrestler to advance to quarterfinals in the championship bracket with three straight wins, only to suffer his first loss of the tournament to Kirk White of Boise State, 3-2. Smart tallied a victory in the fourth wrestle-back, but ended his tournament action with a loss in the fifth wrestle-back round.
Sun Devil Team Leaders:Larkin's prescence in the lineup will be greatly missed, as he leads the team in falls (3-0) and is tied for the team lead in major decisions (5-0) with sophomore Kellan Fluckiger. Larkin is the only undefeated Sun Devil this season with a flawless 9-0 record and he is also the only ASU wrestler to win a tournament title this season . Junior Curtis Owen holds the team lead in technical falls (3-0), while junior Dana Holland owns the most victories on the squad with a solid 10-3 record.
Blackford Closing in on the Record Books:Senior Steve Blackford, the 2000 Pac-10 Wrestler of the Year and two-time All-American, moves into a 10th-place tie with current assistant coach Aaron Simpson on the ASU career victory list (110) with his seven victories this season, 37 wins shy of the school record. Should Blackford put together another 40-plus win season, that record could be close at hand. Last season, Blackford tied for second on the single-season victory list with 43 wins (Eddie Urbano, `84-85), just two away from the school record. Dan St. John (1986-90) holds both the ASU single season victory record (45) and career victory record (147). Blackford is also tied for eighth on the career dual victories list (52), and is seventh on the career falls list (25).
Head Coach Lee Roy Smith: In his ninth year at Arizona State, Lee Roy Smith has continued the unprecedented sucess of one of the nation's premier collegiate wrestling programs. In eight seasons, Smith has guided the Sun Devils to eight NCAA Championship appearances, four top-10 national finishes and four Pac-10 titles. Smith's ASU teams have finished as high as fourth in the nation in 1993 and 1995, and he has mentored 26 All-Americans and two national champions (for a total of three NCAA titles). Smith owns a career slate of 84-53-1 (.609) and is assisted by Tony Quinones, Aaron Simpson and his younger brother Mark Smith.
Up Next: The Sun Devils will compete for the last time in 2000, when they travel to Evanston, Ill. for the Midlands Tournament hosted by Northwestern Friday, Dec. 29 through Saturday, Dec. 30. ASU will return to Tempe to open its Pac-10 schedule with Cal Poly Friday, Jan. 5 at 7 p.m. at Wells Fargo Arena, before welcoming national powerhouse Oklahoma to the Valley of the Sun, Friday, Jan. 12 at 7 p.m.
Pac-12 PlaylistTODAY | 7:00pm PTLive
Pac-12 PlaylistTOMORROW | 7:00pm PTLive
Fri 8/17 | 5:00pm PTLive
Airing on:
- Pac-12 Network
- Pac-12 Oregon


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Kitty: You seem to find the right blends of everything you want by doing so. You can do anything you set your mind to so anything is possible. What words of inspiration do you have for other artists or fans that really love your music? What's something you want to make sure they know about the industry or about you, Portia Monique?
Portia: For me it's about staying true to yourself and your gift and everything else will fall into place. Never give up. It may take a while or it may happen over night. A little bit of what I do to stay focused is listen to good music to get inspired. Even just listening to my own music I get chills and I know this is going to happen even though I don't know when.
Kitty: Out of everything you've done in your musical career from the beginning to now, what would you say was your biggest accomplishment so far?
Portia: Getting my first single played on the radio in Austin, TX. I was working in downtown Seattle and met up with this lady who was doing my nails who asked me what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I started humming the melody of one of my songs and she got all excited like "That was YOU?" It felt so good to have my first real fan and to know that people appreciate what I do. It was crazy. So the next day I brought her in a CD of my single.


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Where Are They Now?
|BRONTE BARBE - Training: Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts (gaining Gyearbuor Asante prize for Acting).
Theatre includes: Princess Fiona in Shrek The Musical (UK Tour), Carnival of the Animals (Riverside Studios), Cool Rider – The Grease 2 Concert (Lyric Theatre, West End), Momentous Musicals (UK tour), Hairspray (Kuala Lumpur/Singapore). Workshops include But I'm a Cheerleader workshop, directed by Jerry Mitchell.
Television includes: Andrew Lloyd Webber's search for Dorothy Over the Rainbow.
|HELEN BLAKE - Training: Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, Cardiff
Helen played Maria in West Side Story for which she received a NODA nomination. Having performed all over the UK and abroad in musicals, weddings, operettas, and major corporate events Helen is now based in Wilmslow offering private singing tutition to both children and adults.
ED CURRIE - Training: Arts Educational School. He is also an alumnus of the National Youth Music Theatre.
Theatre include: Beautiful, The Carole King Musical at the Aldwych Theatre. Annie Get Your Gun (UK Tour), Hairspray (Asian Tour), A Chorus Line (London Palladium), Radio Times (Watermill and UK Tour), The Bald Prima Donna (Catfish Theatre Company, London and UK Tour), Top Hat (original cast, UK tour), Prince of the Pagodas (Royal Ballet, Royal Opera House). Recordings credits include: Great Pretenders the Musical. Choreography credits include: Teddy Bears' Picnic (workshop), Moments (short film), Romeo and Juliet (Nottingham New Theatre), What We Did For Love (Leicester Square Theatre)
Helen is an accomplished classical singer, who performs in several guises - performing with the blues band The Screaming Beavers, singing as a soprano soloist at weddings, civil partnerships and blessings, and as part of "Divas Disguised" at wedding breakfasts and corporate events.
SARAH HADLAND - Training - Laine Theatre Arts College.
Numerous TV, Film and Theatre credits which include: Stevie Sutton in the BBC Comedy Series "Miranda", Quantum of Solace, Bad Girls, The Bill, Waterloo Road, Love Soup, Casualty, Horrible Histories, The IT Crowd, The Bill.
Mark Halliday is an actor, singer and musical theatre performer.
In recent years, Mark has become known for his portrayal of Dean Martin in The Rat Pack - Live From Las Vegas, with which he has wowed audiences all over Europe. He is now bringing the style and sophistication of the Rat Pack to audiences here in the UK.
JOEL HARPER-JACKSON - Training - The Hammond.
Theatre include: Beautiful, The Carole King Musical at the Aldwych Theatre, West End Women (UK Tour), Evita (Bronowski Productions/ Tarento Productions), Pacific Overtures (Union Theatre), Picture Perfect (St James Theatre), Rent (20th Anniversary UK Tour /JP Productions), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Middleton Arena), Aladdin (Stiwt Theatre), Footloose (Grange Theatre), Jesus Christ Superstar (Theatre Clwyd).
TV Includes: PC Chris Skelton Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes.
|DAN PARR - Training: Arts Educational School in London.
TV & FILM includes: THE RISE OF THE KRAYS and THE FALL OF THE KRAYS 'Mad' Teddy Smith - Saracen Films/Torn Pictures; THE CRIMSON FIELD Private Charlie - BBC; CASUALTY Cameron Patterson - BBC; THE VILLAGE Second Soldier - BBC/Company Productions.
Theatre includes: SCUTTLERS - Manchester Royal Exchange; THOSE WHO TRESPASS (Workshop) Syko - Manchester Royal Exchange; BRITANNIA WAVES THE RULES Carl Jackson - Manchester Royal Exchange/Edinburgh Fringe/Latitude Festival; PAGES FROM MYSONGBOOK Max/Nathan/Matt - Manchester Royal Exchange
|Koryann Stevens - Training: Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts.
Theatre include: Into the Woods (London Avondale Theatre), In the Heights (Wimbledon Theatre), West Side Story (Palace Theatre, Manchester), Fiddler on the Roof (Wimbledon Theatre), Wonderland (Shaw Theatre, London), Sounds Amazing (London Avondale Theatre), A Day with No Tomorrow (Short film), Carol Concert (Bridgewater Hall, Manchester).
|GEMMA SUTTON - Training: Arts Educational School
Theatre include: Louise & June in Gypsy (Savoy Theatre), June in Gypsy (Chicester Festival), Julie Jordan in Carousel (Arcola Theatre), Amber in Hairspray (UK Tour), Roxie Hart in Chicago (Leicester Curve Theatre), Ice in Drunk (Leicester Curve/Bridewell), Bues In The Night (Hackney Empire). Enid and first cover Elle in Legally Blonde (Savoy), Laurey in Oklahoma! (UK Tour), Careen O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (New London), understudied and played Rebecca in the London premier of Imagine This (New London), A Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth, Lady Be Good! and Fay in Sandy Wilson's The Boy Friend (Regent's Park Open Air), Children Will Listen (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane).
TV credits include Cilla and Doctors.
TV credits include: Darren Osborne in Hollyoaks since 1999.


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Getting homeowners insurance is probably the best way to secure yourself and your property from potential damage. To make sure you are able to save money while getting better coverage, here are some tips that you should keep in mind.
- Check your policy and make sure you are only paying for the coverage you need.
- Avoid making too many claims in a short time.
- Make sure to get a separate policy if you are in an earthquake or hurricane prone area.
Click here for more tips.


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Qwanell MosleyR&B Singer
#14620Most Popular
BirthdaySeptember 29, 1988
Birthplace New York, United States
AGE29 years old
Album2 Pictures
Singer who became the youngest member of the R&B group Day26 after winning the fourth season of the hit reality show Making the Band. He left the band in 2009 and has since released well-received mixtapes like The Q Files and Guitar-Her.
His 2012 single "See Me" was written and produced by Ken Lewis, who has worked a number of big name artists including Kanye West, Usher and Jay Z.
He signed with Bad Boy Records, run by hip-hop mogul Sean Combs, after winning Making the Band 4.
Before fame
He was born in Rochester, New York and acted in school productions of plays like Ragtime and The Wiz. He later studied audio engineering at Five Towns College.
Related to
He has dated former Danity Kane singer Dawn Richard. His father passed away when he was four years old.


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AUGUST 28, 2015 - As she begins her senior year, Beemnet Neway (NHS'16) brings with her a wealth of experiences gleaned from a summer spent abroad in Australia and New Zealand.
A human science major, Neway is passionate about issues related to health disparities. Last summer, she participated in the Summer Opportunity for Achievement in Research - Minority Health and Health Disparities (SOAR-MHHD) Program.
And this summer, Neway worked as part of a public research team in New Zealand through the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health Multidisciplinary International Research Training Program (MIRT).
Health Outcomes
Neway spent her time examining the links between environmental sustainability and human health, homing in on different cultural approaches to health. She observed firsthand current government efforts to improve health outcomes for the indigenous community in Australia.
"I met with several indigenous community leaders who are using their traditional model of health, which involves a broader sense of well-being and looks at the health of the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual components and one's connection to land," Neway says. "By treating the whole person, they are addressing various health determinants across political, economic, and social boundaries."
Neway's following visit to New Zealand highlighted the critical role that social factors, such as mainstream integration and successful outreach, play in health outcomes.
"Like the indigenous Australian model of health, Maori culture also structures health around the well-being of spiritual, mental, and family components," she says. "However, the Maori people, unlike the Aboriginal communities of Australia, are well integrated into mainstream society. Initiatives designed to improve Maori health utilize integrated public health approaches based on where people live, work, and play."
Holistic Approaches
By studying, researching, and working in the global health arena through a more sociological perspective, Neway has come away with a deeper understanding of how global health issues may be better relieved.
After graduation, Neway will be taking a gap year and plans on working in research focused on global health. Following her gap year, she plans on applying to medical school and pursuing a career in global health.
"My time in both countries has shown me the importance of implementing a holistic approach to health to effectively address health disparities," she notes.
By Celeste Chen (C'14, G'16)
Related Content
Story: Human Science Undergrads Selected for Summer Research Internship


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Orthodontist extols virtues of cosmetic dentistry
Orthodontist Dr Didier Fillion has extolled the virtues of cosmetic dentistry when it comes to achieving the perfect smile.
French-born Dr Fillion, whose high-profile patients include future queen Kate Middleton, said there are many treatments and procedures available for people eager to improve their confidence with a winning smile.
"We can always improve how people look," he told the Evening Standard. "We can always improve how people look.
"The goal is to create the most beautiful smile possible. Society judges us by appearance. If it's a choice between two people, one with a nice smile and the other with an ugly one, well."
Dr Fillion, who shares the London Lingual Orthodontic Clinic with Dr Asif Chatoo, is known for this invisible braces technique and has also pioneered 3D digital technology to enable patients to design their own smiles.
The 3D technique allows the brackets of the brace to be placed in the exact position they need to be on each tooth.
Dr Fillion Evening Standard French-born Dr Fillion Kate Middleton smiles


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ATLANTA – Georgia Tech assistant basketball coach Darryl LaBarrie has resigned.
LaBarrie was placed on paid leave in November as the NCAA and the school investigated an allegation of an NCAA rules violation.
The investigation centers around an issue that occurred while LaBarrie was hosting a recruit during the 2016-17 recruiting cycle.
Georgia Tech issued to following statement: "Darryl LaBarrie has resigned from his position as a men's basketball assistant coach at Georgia Tech. As this is a personnel matter and an NCAA review remains ongoing, Georgia Tech cannot comment further at this time."
LaBarrie issued the following statement: "The NCAA review is taking longer than any of us would have hoped for. Therefore, as a Georgia Tech graduate who loves the school, I recently resigned my assistant coaching position with the program to alleviate one of the many distractions that the team has had to deal with this season. As a college coach, father of three beautiful girls, and husband to my wonderful wife who has been terrific throughout this process, I have earned a reputation of a man of integrity that cares for student-athletes and following NCAA rules. I look forward to returning to college coaching and shaping the lives of young men along their journey. Thank you to all of my family, friends, former players, current members of the team, my teammates, and former co-workers that have been extremely supportive and positive this season. Meanwhile, as part of my continued cooperation with the review process, I will not comment further."
The Jackets are 11-12 on the season and play at Louisville Thursday night.
Source: WSB-TV
Featured Image: AJC.com
Inset Image: AP Photo/File


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It just became much more expensive this week for Illinois traffic violators. The new Illinois traffic laws went into effect on September 15 The new fines for minor offenses such as speeding up to 20 mph over the limit, running a stop sign or making an illegal turn will carry a $120 penalty, up from $75, under rates set by the Illinois Supreme Court. Topping the speed limit by 21 to 30 mph will cost $140, up from $95.
The increase in fines is the first since 1993, said Champaign County Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Ford, chairman of the Supreme Court subcommittee that recommended the increases.The panel investigated the cost of speeding tickets in other states and found that Illinois' were lower, Ford said. "We were a bargain," he said.
The set increases apply only to offenses that don't require a court appearance. The cost of many tickets requiring a court date — such as speeding more than 30 mph over the limit — will also go up. But those hikes aren't definitive because a traffic court judge decides the fines.
A traffic violation cash penalty actually represents a bond rate set by the state Supreme Court. The bonds for minor offenses are accepted as fines for convenience's sake, Ford said.
I think it's fair to say that the increased fines were intaled to raise more revenue for the state but we will see if it acts as a deterrent to drivers and if it actually decreases the amount of car accidents .
If you or someone you know has been involved in a car accident or Chicago truck accident , then call Chicago car accident attorney , Aaron Bryant, for a free consultation at 312-588-3384 or go to the firm website at www.blgchicago.com